


A Nightmare of a Turnabout || An MCYT x Ace Attorney Crossover

by Mega4914



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF, 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Ace Attorney x MCYT crossover, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Crossover, Fanfiction, Flirting, Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney Spoilers, M/M, Minecraft, Murder, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Not really Dreamnotfound and Wrightworth i guess, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Freeform, Slight Gay haha, mcyt - Freeform, minecraft youtubers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mega4914/pseuds/Mega4914
Summary: 19-year-old Nicholas "Sapnap" Martinez is found brutally murdered in his shared apartment, and the eyewitness points his finger at Clay Anderson, the victim's best friend.It's an open-and-shut case, and not-quite-a-rookie defense attorney Phoenix Wright has been dragged into this mess, his job being getting his client a complete acquittal. Even he isn't sure whether he will succeed.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mitsurugi Reiji | Miles Edgeworth/Naruhodou Ryuuichi | Phoenix Wright
Comments: 13
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

Dream stared at the words printed on the paper, rarely blinking, trying to get his mind into the book but mostly failing. He wasn't sure why exactly he picked this book up at a store, but he had it, and he didn't like leaving bought books unread. He'd been staring at the same sentence for too long, and the words had started floating around. Frustrated, he slammed the book shut and tossed it in the direction of his bed, where it landed on his covers with a flump.

"Sapnap!" He called. "I'm bored!"

He expected his friend to yell back with a sarcastic remark, but no answer came. Dream got up from his chair, sighing. Sapnap was probably in the bathroom again. He'd warned him not to eat at Taco Bell's, but did he listen? Of course not. In the seven years he'd known him, Sapnap never listened to anything he said.

"Sapnap!" Dream called out again, louder, waiting for a reply muffled by the walls. But none came. Dream crossed the room to the door and pulled it open, and immediately was hit by the feeling that _something was wrong._

He didn't know what it was. It was just a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, like an itch he couldn't get at.

"Sapnap!" He yelled again, louder, his voice betraying the hint of worry he felt within. It was probably nothing. Maybe Sapnap had his earphones on, either listening to music or watching Emkay or something. Dream shrugged and turned back around, despite the dread growing inside him, when the smell hit his nostrils.

Something metallic. Like copper. Dream felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, felt himself break out in a cold sweat. To recognize the smell of blood was built into human behavior, after all; it allowed early humans to track down wounded members of their tribe. As much as Dream wanted to deny it, the truth was clear: the smell assaulting his nostrils was that of blood.

Dream's body moved with his mind still frozen. He began sprinting towards the source of the smell, and only when he reached the kitchen did he snap out of his daze.

On the floor laid Sapnap, his throat slit open, lying in a puddle of his own blood.

The sight stopped Dream in his tracks, gripped by panic stronger than anything he might have experienced in his life. He reached for Sapnap, his limbs jerking more than shaking, his blood spiked with unnecessary adrenaline. The blood flow had long stopped, but he still tried to look for signs of life in his best friend, just a pulse or a steady heartbeat that indicated he was alive. Dream began to grow desperate. He grabbed hold of Sapnap's other hand, to try and look for a pulse there as if it would magically come back when he noticed it. The knife.

Dream freed the knife from Sapnap's stiffened fingers and stared at it. Its edge coated with not-quite dried out blood, it was clearly the knife that had ended his friend's life. And he recognized it, because it came from their very own kitchen.

Dream looked back at Sapnap's face. His eyes had rolled over in his head, making them seem like glassy white marbles. His gaze moved from his face to his neck, the mass of flesh and blood that had begun to congeal around his slit throat. Dream gagged as the smell attacked him with increased fervor, seeping into his thoughts, infecting his mind with hopelessness. He dashed to the sink to throw up, still in a kind-of daze from the shock. Only when he had emptied his stomach into the metal sink did the reality of the situation sink in: Sapnap was dead, and he wasn't coming back.

He reached inside him and realized he didn't feel anything. The panic had left, and in its place was numbness. Vaguely he wondered whether he should be sad, but that was just an out-of-place thought in the back of his mind. His grip tightened around the knife, and he looked back at Sapnap — no, he wasn't Sapnap anymore. Sapnap was gone. This corpse lying on the tiles before him was just an empty shell that had been discarded.

His mind provided him with the fleeting thought that with a blood-caked knife he must look like a murderer right now. He felt a strange impulse to laugh, and he dropped the knife, wondering if he was sick in the head. He knelt once again by Sapnap's corpse; his brain had begun to block out the smell. He looked once more at the neck wound on the body. In one area, the flesh had stuck out in a way that resembled a cartoon mouth with a tongue sticking out, and once again he felt the desire to laugh.

He knelt there for who knew how long. Time had started to lose meaning. It could've been minutes, one whole hour, several days before the deafening sound of the front door breaking down rang out, the commotion that followed afterwards as the police flooded in. Dream's brain registered the gruff voice of a man shouting something; he didn't care enough to try to understand what he was saying. Then he was being dragged away, handcuffs forced onto his tightly clenched hands; he was shoved into a police car, but his eyes never left the general direction of Sapnap's dead body even as the car pulled away from his apartment. 


	2. Part 1: Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She straightened with a look of vengeance. "But we have to find the true murderer. We have to."
> 
> "We will."

Phoenix wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. His back had already begun to ache from bending over for so long, making him feel as old as Maya made him out to be. He didn't know why the urge to clean his toilet had struck him so suddenly — again — this morning, but he figured he might as well get it over with.

"Nick!" The voice of a young girl resounded through the office. Her voice was tinged with urgency, making Phoenix straighten up.

"Maya? What is it?" Phoenix called out.

A girl who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen appeared in Phoenix's periphery, though Phoenix knew her to be an adult. Her hair was partially tied up in a topknot, the rest cascading over her shoulders down to her back where it ended in another knot. A fringe of black hair framed her brown eyes, which were currently portraying frustration and worry. She wore the weirdest clothes Phoenix had seen on anyone yet — a magatama bead necklace, a short kimono that she tied at the waist with a large, deep pink ribbon and a sort of thin purple robe that was about the same height as her kimono, ending near her mid-thighs. She tugged on a lock of her hair absently as her face settled into a look of annoyance.

"Nick, why are you cleaning the toilet again?"

"Because I want to." Phoenix stood up, putting the toilet brush aside and flushing the toilet to get rid of the soap. "What is it?" He asked again.

Maya grabbed his arm and dragged him out to the office room. "Come see the news!"

The main part of the news flash was already over, but Phoenix could piece together the story from what followed next. There had been a murder. He glanced at Maya, who was staring at him.

"They arrested Dream as a suspect!" Maya stomped her foot, yanking on his arm. "We have to help him, Nick!"

"Wait, what — who's Dream?" Phoenix asked, trying to free his arm from Maya's clutches. "And who's this Sapnap person?"

Maya stopped pulling on Phoenix's arm long enough to give him a look of disbelief. "You don't know Dream? Really?"

"Maya, I don't spend all my time doing things that won't be of any use. Unlike you."

Maya huffed and turned away.

"Oh, you don't have a comeback." Phoenix said, to which Maya only stuck her nose up in the air. "Fine. Tell me who Dream is, at least."

Maya immediately turned back around, happy to talk about something she was interested in. "Dream is a really popular YouTuber, and so is Sapnap. They're friends, Nick! Best friends! How can Dream possibly kill Sapnap?" She clenched her fists, a blazing look in her eyes. "I know he's not guilty, Nick! You have to defend him!"

Phoenix couldn't have disagreed if he wanted to. "Alright. But let me talk to him first."

Maya's face transformed into a smile, then into a depressingly downcast expression. "I can't believe Sapnap's...dead."

Phoenix could tell that whoever Sapnap was had meant a lot to Maya. "I'm sorry."

Maya sniffled and wiped away a tear. "It's not your fault, Nick." She straightened with a look of vengeance. "But we have to find the true murderer. We have to."

"We will." Phoenix straightened out his shirt sleeves and pulled his coat on, making sure his badge was still attached to it. Maya beamed at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but I will definitely update tomorrow :)  
> Thank you for reading! Have a good day/night wherever you are. Stay safe!


	3. Part 1—2: Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm...also glad you came here." Dream felt awkward phrasing his request, since they'd already offered to take his case. "I, um. I was hoping you'd take my case. I could never...do what they arrested me for."

Dream hadn't given his situation much thought, but after a tiring half hour of questioning — all Dream wanted to do was lie down and forget about it all — the amount of trouble he was in truly began to sink in. The interrogators had given up at that point (Dream got the idea they weren't very good at their job) and had deposited him in a cell in the detention center, a dreary place with a stoic guard and a security camera pointed at the occupant.

As Dream sat, still numb over Sapnap's death, he wondered what would happen next. He should be applying for an attorney, shouldn't he? Which attorney would he choose? It wasn't as if he knew many; the extent of his "legal people" knowledge included a couple prosecutors, the local judge, some famous dead defense lawyers, and...what was his name? Phoenix Wright.

The name had stayed in Dream's memory ever since he had seen it mentioned on the news some months back, mainly because it was so unusual, and also because its owner also looked pretty unusual. Phoenix Wright apparently had turned a case around "once again", managing to defend his client through what could only be seen as an open-and-shut case and arriving at the truth whilst working with, of all people, Miles Edgeworth, a genius prosecutor. This wasn't the strangest thing that had happened in Phoenix Wright's career — Dream had once heard about someone cross-examining a parrot in a famous murder case, and had only made the connection some years later.

Thinking about him caused Dream to make up his mind. He wanted Mr. Wright to represent him, but...would he agree to take his case? It was a fairly difficult one, with himself being the only person at the scene when the police arrived, but a man with an intellect like Mr. Wright's could prove his innocence. He hoped he could.

His mind drifted over to what had really killed Sapnap, but he didn't want to answer that question.

He had just started wondering how he would go about requesting Phoenix Wright as a defense attorney — he wasn't very familiar with legal procedures — when the door swung open, and in marched a very strange duo.

Dream recognized the first person on sight. It was a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, with spiky black hair and eyes that changed to the color of a blue sky every time they caught the light. Pinned to the lapel of his cheap blue suit was a golden badge, announcing his profession — he was a defense attorney. It was evident that this man was the one he had been thinking about, the one who had been rising to fame as a lawyer, Phoenix Wright.

The other was a young girl, quite eccentric in her appearance. She wore a short kimono, some sort of large bead necklace, and a strange, giant pink ribbon tied at her waist. A purple robe completed her attire, and with her weirdly-done hair, her profile boasted strangeness. She seemed vaguely familiar, though Dream couldn't recall where he had seen her. Perhaps on the television? He wasn't sure.

Mr. Wright walked up to him and introduced himself, holding out his badge, but Dream was barely listening. Had news of Sapnap's death and his arrest reached the media? It must have. How else would Mr. Wright be here? No, why was Mr. Wright here? Why would an attorney like him want to defend Dream?

The young girl began to speak, and Dream snapped back into reality. She was saying something about letting them defend him, and also something about how she was a big fan of his.

Dream had heard that second part a lot, but something about it put a slight smile on his face. It also made him wonder about how his fans were taking the news, what with a death and an arrest.

His gaze shifted over to Mr. Wright, who was looking uncomfortable with the girl's speech. So Mr. Wright didn't know him — at least, not through his videos, since Mr. Wright didn't seem like a guy who played Minecraft — and was possibly dragged here by the girl still talking, who he took to be his younger sister. Is that why she looked familiar?

The girl finally finished, looking at Dream with a huge smile on her face. He was suddenly reminded that due to this incident, everyone would know what he looked like. Dream groaned internally. This was not how he pictured doing his face reveal.

"Thank you." Dream tried to speak, but all that came out was a murmur. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Thank you. I'm glad you like my videos."

"Of course I do!" The girl chirped happily, and Dream somehow felt a bit of her energy pass on to him. He sat up straighter, trying to smooth back his hair.

"I'm...also glad you came here." Dream felt awkward phrasing his request, since they'd already offered to take his case. "I, um. I was hoping you'd take my case. I could never...do what they arrested me for."

He clenched his fists. Sapnap was dead, and he knew that. He had seen his corpse on the very floor of their kitchen, completely, irrevocably lifeless. Then why was he so reluctant to say it out loud?

Mr. Wright looked at the girl, and the two of them seemed to have some sort of telepathic conversation. Then he nodded slightly, and the girl turned back to him with a smile bigger than her previous one.

"Of course we'll take your case! That's what we came here to do, anyway." Her mood grew quieter, and she looked down mournfully. "I'm sorry about Sapnap. It was really unexpected."

Dream nodded, but said nothing. He was sure the sadness and grief would be hitting him sometime soon, since it felt like he'd been numb for a long time now. The seconds seemed to drag, and Dream stood indifferent.

He watched as Mr. Wright and the girl sat down in the two chairs placed before him, their voices slightly muffled by the thick glass window separating him from his guests.

"You were in the same apartment as the victim during the time of death, is that right?" Mr. Wright asked him.

"Yes, I was. We share —... used to share an apartment."

Mr. Wright's brows furrowed slightly, possibly due to a tinge of sadness. This made Dream like him more. "Was anyone else staying in the apartment at the time?"

Dream shook his head. "No. All of my other friends and family members stay in different states." He thought about George, wondered if he was awake. How was his family taking this? How were all his friends — George, BadBoyHalo, Technoblade, the others — taking this...what did they think?

"So there were no one who could have killed Mr, uh, Sapnap, correct?" Mr. Wright continued.

Dream smiled a sad smile, a spike of pain stabbing through his heart. He still felt numb otherwise. He couldn't explain it. "His name was Nick. Nicholas Martinez."

He saw the girl drop her head, saw Mr. Wright mirror his sad smile. Is this what made him so popular with his clients? His feeling of empathy, the way he would place his absolute trust in them. Good defense attorneys — no, good _people_ — like him rarely came along, and he was glad Mr. Wright was such a person.

"So, about Mr. Martinez..." Mr. Wright said, referring to the matter at hand. "Is there any other possible person who could have killed him?"

"Killed?" Dream asked, confused. He knew he'd been arrested on suspicion of murder, but he never actually considered the possibility of Sapnap's death being a murder. He'd just assumed...

"You believe it was a suicide." Mr. Wright stated. Dream lowered his gaze to the floor, and a feeling of cold fury grew in his chest. It was the first real emotion he'd felt after discovering Sapnap's body, and he tried to tamp it down. "It's - possible."

But something else spoke up in the back of his mind. Why would Sapnap kill himself? He had been fine when Dream had last talked to him, and just a day ago he'd stated that his life was going great — accompanied by a ruffle of Dream's hair and kissy motions. He may have been trying to jokingly flirt with him, but he seemed genuinely happy. So why...?

"Actually, no." Dream went back on his statement. "It makes no sense. He had no reason to just...commit suicide out of the blue."

Mr. Wright tapped his chin. "Did you see the murder weapon?"

Dream's gaze dropped to the floor again. "Yes." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "I picked it up."

"You picked it up?!" Mr. Wright exclaimed, then groaned. "This is not looking good. Alone in the apartment, fingerprints on the weapon...the only thing we're missing here is an eyewitness."

"But there couldn't have been an eyewitness!" Dream said desperately. "I wasn't even there when it happened!"

"You weren't there?" Mr. Wright said. "But didn't you just say you were in the same apartment as the victim?"

"I mean, I was in another room. I was reading a book in my room at the time. I didn't...didn't see him die."

"Still, that doesn't make for a good alibi," Mr. Wright said thoughtfully. "I need to visit the crime scene. Maybe we can pick up clues there."

The girl, who had been silent all this time, spoke up, springing up from her chair. "Then let's go, Nick!"

Dream couldn't help smiling a little at her nickname for Mr. Wright. The defense attorney got up from his chair, giving Dream a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Mr...Dream. I'll find the truth behind his death. I swear it."

Dream's smile grew wider, a genuine smile that he thought he wouldn't be cracking so soon after Sapnap's death. "My name is Clay, Mr. Wright. Clay Anderson. And thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Mr. Wright nodded, and turned to go. The girl gave him a smile of her own, and made to leave as well.

"Miss?" Dream called as they reached the exit. Both the girl and Mr. Wright turned back to look.

"Mr. Dream?" She asked as if surprised he was talking to her.

"I wanted to know your name." Dream said kindly.

"Oh!" The girl looked momentarily stunned. Her face broke out into a smile. "I'm Maya. Maya Fey."

Fey? So she wasn't Mr. Wright's sister. Something tugged at the back of Dream's mind, though; a memory. "Oh, are you from the exhibition that occurred a few months back? The, um, Kurain Treasures Exhibit?"

Inexplicably, her face grew sad. Dream hastened to make up for his mistake. "I'm sorry, I thought—"

"Yes, I am." The girl said, looking away. "I'm glad you remember me, but I'm an assistant at the Wright and Co. Law Offices now."

Dream noticed Mr. Wright gazing sadly at Miss Fey, as if the conversation had brought up something that they wished they'd rather forget. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"No, no, it's fine!" The girl brightened. She folded her hands together and nodded with a smile on her face. "I'm glad I got to meet you."

"It was a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Fey." Dream smiled at her. "And thank you again for your help, Mr. Wright."

"It's my job to help those in need, Mr. Anderson." Mr. Wright smiled back, giving him a nod and leaving with Miss Fey following him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah I took too long to update I'm sorry!! I have exams coming up and it's been a nightmare (hehe get it?) studying for them, so I haven't really had much time to write.   
> Thank you for reading so far! Have a good day/night wherever you are, and stay safe :)


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